“Lost, Unhappy and at Home”: René Girard's Theory of Mimetic Desire, Religious Violence and Apocalyptic Vision Applied to the Poetry of Seamus Heaney by Michael Eric Gillingham A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Religious Studies University of Alberta © Michael Eric Gillingham, 2016 Gillingham ii Abstract The relationship between religion and violence in our modern world is problematic. In the post-Christian West, religion has been privatized and personalized as what scholars like René Girard call secular modernity emerged. The legitimate use of violence in the West has been restricted to the state. In other parts of the world, religion continues to be a strong influence on culture and politics. The separations between religion and state in Western secular modernity do not apply in many countries and cultures in Africa and Asia. This is particularly a problem in countries with Muslim populations. The events of 9/11, the subsequent War on Terror, and the more recent terrorist attacks in Europe and around the world have highlighted these differences. This thesis is concerned with religious violence. Is religion violent? If so, is religious violence worse or somehow different than the violence of the secular state? Is there a possibility of peace between a secular state and a theopolitical state? I approach these questions with an interdisciplinary approach combining the study of religion and the study of English literature. My purpose is to examine critically these questions in this thesis. I argue that religion has the potential to express violence but it also has the potential to inspire peace. Religion continues to be important and the West will need to seek to understand and respect this reality as we move forward. I begin by situating the terms “religion”, “myth”, “violence”, and “religious violence” in the context of Religious Studies and our broader Western culture. From a theoretical perspective, I am employing the work of historian, literary theorist, and scholar of religion René Girard. Girard’s work on mimetic desire, religious violence, and war provide some powerful tools of analysis. I am applying Girard’s insights to the work of Irish poet, professor, and translator Seamus Heaney. Heaney’s poetry was written during times of great sectarian violence Gillingham iii between Roman Catholic and Protestant populations in Northern Ireland. Heaney’s personal experiences with and poetic reflections on this violence are important contributions to discussions of religious violence. Girard’s Violence and the Sacred and Heaney’s North are particularly relevant to this project’s focus. I conclude with a chapter on 9/11 and the War on Terror. Heaney and Girard both provide critical analysis of these events in their work. They also suggest a way forward for the West and its neighbours through conflict to peace. In their own work, both Heaney and Girard acknowledge the continuing relevance and importance of religion in our world and the need to critically assess and respond to all forms of violence. Humanity’s capacity to wreak great destruction has only increased in this new millennium and great care must be taken to avoid the worst. Gillingham iv Acknowledgments I am grateful to the Religious Studies program at the University of Alberta for the support and funding necessary to begin this project. I am especially thankful for the support of Dr. Felice Lifshitz, Dr. Willi Braun, Ms. Janey Kennedy, and Ms. Nicola DiNicola. I am also grateful for the funding provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to finish this project. I am grateful to Dr. David Gay, my thesis supervisor. His support and advice have been very important to this work. I am also grateful to the other members of my thesis committee: Dr. Francis Landy, Dr. Willi Braun, and Dr. Robert Brazeau. All of them, in addition to Dr. Gay, have also served as professors, mentors, and guides in this time of study and scholarship. I am very grateful to my wife Lynne for her love and support. I am grateful to my children Joshua and Matthew and their spouses Melinda and Bailey. Their love and support has meant a lot to me. I am also grateful to the staff and members of Bethel Lutheran Church in Sherwood Park for their support as I have continued my studies. Gillingham v Table of Contents Chapter 1 Situating “Religion”, “Myth”, “Violence”, “Religious Violence”, René Girard’s Early Theory, and Seamus Heaney’s Early Poetry 1 I. Situating “Religion”, “Myth”, “Violence”, and “Religious Violence” 1 II. Biographies of Girard and Heaney 13 III. Girard’s Early Theory 16 IV. Girard’s Deceit, Desire, and the Novel 19 V. Heaney’s Early Influences 25 VI. Heaney’s Early Poetry 32 VII. Religion and Religious Violence in Girard and Heaney 50 VIII. Summary 57 Chapter 2 Sympathy for the Victim: René Girard’s Violence and the Sacred and Seamus Heaney’s North 58 I. Sympathy for the Victim in Girard and Heaney 58 II. Defining “Victim” and Girard’s Violence and the Sacred 59 III. Religion and Religious Conflict in Ireland 66 IV. Heaney’s North 70 V. Critical Work on Girard and Heaney 92 VI. The Victim in Girard and Heaney 100 VII. Summary 102 Chapter 3 Renouncing Violence: René Girard’s Battling to the End , Seamus Heaney’s Poetry, and Seamus Heaney’s Burial at Thebes after 9/11 and the War on Terror 104 I. Renouncing Violence after 9/11 and the War on Terror 104 Gillingham vi II. September 11, 2001 105 III. Heaney and September 11, 2001 105 IV. Girard and September 11, 2001 110 V. The War on Terror 111 VI. Protesting the War in Iraq 113 VII. Heaney, Sophocles, and Burial at Thebes 123 VIII. Heaney’s District and Circle 144 IX. Girard and Secular Modernity 151 X. The Apocalypse and the Apocalyptic 153 XI. Girard’s Battling to the End 156 XII. Summary 162 Afterword 164 Works Cited 169 Gillingham 1 Chapter 1 Situating “Religion”, “Myth”, “Violence”, “Religious Violence”, René Girard’s Early Theory, and Seamus Heaney’s Early Poetry I. Situating “Religion”, “Myth”, “Violence”, and “Religious Violence” The relationship between religion and violence is a vexed question in the twenty-first century. The West has, according to some observers, moved beyond its deep historical connections to Christianity into what might be termed a “post-Christian” culture. With this move, religion has been privatized and personalized in the West as public power, authority, and the legitimate use of violence have shifted to the state. This has created a separation between religious and political institutions in the West and limited the role that religion can play in expressing violence. Some observers, in contrast, see the West being challenged by a “post- secular” global culture as religion’s influence is maintained or magnified in a global context. Non-Western areas in the world have not experienced modernity and its concomitant secularization in the same manner. The powerful political and social impact of religious traditions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam continues to be felt in many countries and cultures in Africa and Asia. These religious traditions have impacted the modern global political context and increased the sense among some that, in these cases, religion and violence are inextricably linked. The need to make sense of our current situation is dire. The work of historians, literary critics, theorists of religion, and poets can help us to see our situation in more nuanced and informed ways. “Religion”, for example, is a term and concept that needs serious scrutiny. Popular understandings of religion fail to account for the complexities and realities of the various religious traditions currently active in our world today. Gillingham 2 What is religion? Closely related to the term “religion” is the term “myth”. The term “myth” and its application in Religious Studies needs to be explored. Returning to the term “religion”, popular understandings of religion can also fail to account for the historical dynamics of the study of religion. The role of Christianity in the creating, classifying, and assessing of various religious traditions needs to be highlighted. Religious Studies scholars have traced, for example, how Western Christian explorers and missionaries discovered and defined both Hinduism and Buddhism in ways that imposed a Christian religious structure on what were native cultural understandings and practices. Part of the important work that needs to be done on the relationship between religion and violence requires a focus on the term “religion” and the history of the classification of “religions”. The relationship between religion and violence also needs scrutiny. Are some religions inherently violent? Are some extreme expressions of religions more likely to inspire violence in adherents? Is “fundamentalism” in any religious context a precursor to hatred and violence? Recent historical events have inspired a number of researchers to focus on the relationship between religion and violence. While some researchers have been unclear in their definition of religion, others have been unclear in their definition of religious violence and how religious violence might differ from other forms of violence. The relationship between religion and violence may also suggest a new definition of religion defined specifically in terms of violence. Religion is, in this understanding, that for which one is willing to kill or to die. For the purposes of my thesis, I have chosen to focus on the relationship between religion and violence as it is depicted in the poetry of Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Heaney’s poems include an important critique of the violence between Irish Roman Catholic and Irish Protestant Christians in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s.